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    battery drain while "acoustic biking"

    With my new seat angle, I may not use any motor during an hour's ride. With the controller idle except to power the display, the battery drains faster than expected. With no lights, the battery loses about 1% per hour of riding, or 6.8 Watts. With the head and tail light, it loses about 1.7% per...
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    A good word for Aventon

    Last summer, I'd ridden my Abound daily for 20 months when I removed the center stand to clean and lube. Bolting it back on, I crushed the rear light cable. I e-mailed customer service to ask the price of a new tail light. I got a quick response saying a new headlight, listing for $6, had been...
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    Trump cancels trail, bike-lane grants deemed hostile to cars.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-22/trump-cancels-trail-bike-lane-grants-deemed-hostile-to-cars?utm_campaign=bn&utm_medium=distro&utm_source=yahooUS NHSTA has suddenly changed its tune. A few weeks ago, their website said helmets were the least effective way to reduce fatalities...
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    How about greasing electrical connectors?

    I replaced the controller on my Aventon Abound. Generally, I find e-bike connectors difficult to disconnect, and this was especially bad. Vaguely I remembered a tool. Later I remembered what it was: my hose removal pliers. Using them might require me to put some sort of hose clamp on each half...
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    Blessed silence after two years!

    I’ve had my Aventon Abound nearly 2 years. Sometimes there was a creak that seemed to come from the hinge of the fold-down steering stem. Lubing didn’t fix it permanently. Recently it got worse. I couldn’t tell if it was coming from the steering head, the boxy down tube, the battery in the...
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    splicing Julet 4 pin tail light cable

    I removed the center stand from my Abound. It's wonderfully made. I thought pulling the hinge pin would be asking for trouble, so I brushed it off and sprayed moving parts with silicone, and it works better than new. I turned on my headlight at sundown so drivers would see me coming. When I got...
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    Handlebar alignment

    After I worked on my Abound, the handlebars felt misaligned. I'd always found aligning ebike handlebars a hassle. This one was especially bad. From behind the handlebars, the wide battery box hid the wheel. Handlebars were adjusted by turning the stem, but loosening the pinch clamp allowed the...
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    machinists don't use torque wrenches

    Except rear axle nuts, every fastener on my Aventon bike has a hex socket, but the supplied folding hex key set is terrible. More than 50 years ago, I discovered that the ISO hex keys that came with BMW motorcycles took the guesswork out of torquing, so I ordered a complete set. The H4, H5, H6...
  9. S

    automatic self-adjusting wire strippers

    A couple of weeks ago I bought these. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TS6KCXD I'd always used the kind where you figure out what gauge wire you have, find the notch in the strippers, use one size bigger if the wire is stranded, clamp the wire with the sharp hole, turn the stripper to be sure the...
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    The original torque wrench is still the best!

    As of 1990, the Chinese owned more than one bicycle per household. These days, 4 times more e-bikes are sold in China than in the rest of the world combined. Chinese cyclists must know the importance of proper tightening of fasteners. Traditionally, bicycle manufacturers provided sheet-metal...
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    collapsible stool

    Airing bicycle tires was a hassle. On a car or truck, the valve will be nearly a foot off the ground even at 6 o'clock. With one hand, I could shove the chuck hard to seat it. On a bicycle, shoving hard with one hand will move the wheel unless it's at 6 o'clock, which is very low. Sitting on the...
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    A snob's delight

    In “Thunder Road,” a pretty girl is sitting with her beau when she hears a distinctive sound a mile away. She says, “That’s Luke!” She runs to the parking lot and greets him by opening the door and jumping in. The beau moans, “Nobody can compete with him. He’s got the loudest pipes in the...
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    pedal pins and cleats

    After I bought an e-bike in 2020, I found that the cleats on the resin pedals often cut my shin right through my pants. Sooner or later my shin was bound to collide with the pedal as I walked beside the bike to push, pull, or turn it, usually in the garage. I didn't know why cleats were...
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    clanking brakes

    I get up to 23 mph descending a hill near my house. I usually brake at the bottom to slow for the speed bump. Last week, when I applied the brakes, there was a clanking sound. It continued when I released and reapplied the brakes. I was afraid I might be incurring serious mechanical damage or...
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    Why such big, hard cotter pins for brake pads?

    When I replaced OE brake pads on a Radpower bike in 2021, the cotter pins were reasonably easy to straighten. The pins with the replacements were bigger and harder. It was difficult to bend the ends and worse when I had to remove the pads for cleaning. Yesterday I replaced OE pads on another...
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    Spacers for mounting brake calipers

    My Radmission became my backup bike 8 months ago, when I bought a new e-bike. I'd ride it several times a month. When hot weather came, I brought the battery indoors so it would stay cooler. That meant I rode the Radmission less. A few days ago I put in the battery and rode it. The mechanical...
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    Brakes got weak in the garage

    I've had two e-bikes whose mechanical brakes would stop me in 20 feet from 20 mph, like a modern car. In fact, they'd do it with the front brake alone. I couldn't have stopped so short without risers for the handlebars (to keep me from being thrown over them) and layback posts (to move my weight...
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    little girl pedals 200 miles in 2 days, no motor

    She recommends sandals and plenty of smoke breaks. https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/undiscovered-cycling-whizz-relives-epic-7371158 She also enjoyed tickling the ivories. https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/see-amazing-96-year-old-11963330
  19. S

    A better Abound tire

    Within my first 30 miles, a worn, rounded particle of glass, like a grain of sand, lodged in the rubber of my rear tire and ended up puncturing the tube. A lot of ebike tires have very little puncture resistance, but this took the cake. I bought a Schwalbe Pick-up, advertised for puncture...
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